The story goes when Dr. Stookey was testing a piece of glass plate, he accidentally heated the oven to 1600F, instead of 1100F. And the result surprised him-instead of a melting piece, he found a milky white plate, fotoform glass, the first strong, heat resistant glass ceramics.

I used to own few pieces of CorningWare, which normally have very thick glass walls. They are super easy to use and make a beautiful display. This reminds me that I should visit Corning Glass Museum!!It'd be fun to spend few days at the Glass museum...